A Local Grade 3 Class Learns About Plants & Pollinators

A recent Let's Talk Science activity in a local grade 3 class had the students practically 'buzzing' with excitement about the importance of pollinators to the plant life cycle! ;)
We all put on our Biologists caps, and after examining various seeds, we discussed how seeds spread and the importance of plants to all aspects of human life. Students acted out the life cycle of a plant, responding to extra rain and sun as they grew.

They then had a chance to see the world like a BEE sees it by examining flowers under a black light to help them 'see' the UV active nectar guides that help direct bees to pollen.

As our final activity, the students made their own flowers with crazy cool UV active nectar guides!

It was a fantastic, fun-filled morning for all involved! Thanks everyone!

Volunteer Appreciation Night @ the Grad Lounge

Hi all our wonderful LTS volunteers!

You are cordially invited to join Nancy & I plus some of your fellow volunteers 

at the Grad Lounge 

at 6pm 

on Thursday, November 28th.

We've reserved the big table at the back and will be providing some appetizers as well as raffling off a few prizes before the Grad Lounge Trivia fun begins at 7 pm.

Friends of LTS are absolutely welcome too! But we can't promise you a prize ;-)

Post Party Updates -- 
Out LTS trivia team made an excellent showing AGAIN this semester, placing 3rd and 2nd in the two trivia rounds.
Kate B & Keith P were our top two volunteers this semester! They each received a $10 gift card.

Thanks everyone!
We'll definitely do it again next semester!

LTS will be at STAO this week

The national Let's Talk Science folks will have a booth at the Science Teachers'Association of Ontario (STAO) conference this week.

The University of Guelph Science Outreach team will also have a booth and will be talking up all the outreach this university does, including their support of our LTS program.

UofG's very own Bonnie Lasby will be giving a talk about Nanoscience, so if you're heading to the conference, be sure to check out her talk. It should be one of the highlight talks!

Thursday, November 14, 2013 1:30 - 2:30Nanoscience: Cool Stuff for the Classroom Too!Room: Toronto A

Technology is making things smaller, lighter, faster and better. Find out where this trend in technology is going, how it can be incorporated in your classroom, and why it's an interesting area of science for students to discover and pursue.

What we've been up to this month

LTS at the University of Guelph has already run 28 activities since the start of the semester! Here are just a couple highlights of what our wonderful volunteers have been up to so far.

Monday, September 30th
Liz took 4 brand new volunteers to an after-school group in Guelph to show them the ropes and wow the kids with some Chemistry Magic Show fun!

Thursday, October 17th
4 fabulous volunteers visited a tiny rural school in Dublin, Ontario to run events in all 5 of the school's classrooms. Our volunteers took two special guests along with them for the day to help teach the kids about habitats, animal life cycles and animal adaptations.

Meet our visiting axolotls, Fred and George!

Let's Talk SPOOKY Science is officially Famous!

I'm thrilled to announce that our 
Let's Talk SPOOKY Science 
booth at the Elora FrightFest is officially famous! 
(well, "famous" in Wellington County at least)

Check out:

http://www.wellingtonadvertiser.com/comments/index.cfm?articleID=18908

It also caught the attention of head office, who posted a story on the national LTS site:
http://www.letstalkscience.ca/news-and-events/news/1595-let%92s-talk-spooky-science-at-the-elora-frightfest.html

Saturday am: 5 volunteers from Waterloo and I entertained the kiddies.

Saturday night: Katie B, Derek T and Tanya M amped up the spooktacular-ness of our booth with glow in the dark and UV glowing slime!

Sunday: Keith P, Heather G, Shuang L and I mesmerized the masses with mysterious self-inflating (frozen) ghost balloons and hands on, super gross alien snot they could take home!

Way to go! We couldn't have done it without the help of these fabulous volunteers! Thanks everyone! Based on the success of this first run, I'm pretty sure we'll be making it an annual event!

Let's Talk SPOOKY Science

Let's Talk Science at the University of Guelph ran a booth all weekend at the Elora Fright Fest! 

U of Guelph volunteers were joined by some LTS volunteers from U of Waterloo to offer some special spooky Halloween-themed science demos for kids! Including:

• making coloured or glow-in-the-dark alien snot
• examining the density of 'eye balls'
• creating spooky self-inflating ghost balloons using liquid nitrogen or vinegar & baking soda
• monster toothpaste!
• lots of other fun activities

LTS at U of Guelph volunteers Keith, Heather, Ann (coordinator) and Shuang on Sunday!

LTS at U of Guelph volunteers Katie, Derek and Tanya on Saturday afternoon!

LTS at Waterloo volunteers Grace, Serena and Selina helping at our Let's Talk Science booth on Saturday morning. Photo compliments of Mike Robinson from the Wellington Advertiser: https://twitter.com/WellyAdvertiser/media

Featured Volunteer: Sana Khan!

Sana Khan is one of our most dedicated volunteers, and this month, we are featuring her in both our educator newsletter and on our blog site!

Sana routinely brings an enthusiasm and passion to LTS activities that impresses both kids and educators (and us!) alike! She is always looking for ways to help us plan and deliver new programs and activities and is always willing to lend a hand with our special events -- even if that means driving through a torrential rain storm from Mississauga to Fergus to help run an all-day LTS booth at the Fergus Fall Fair! Sana was the 2013 LTS at Guelph All Science Challenge Quizmaster, delivering questions to our keen ASC participants.

Last year, we nominated Sana and another volunteer, Justine, for the Let's Talk Science CIHR-Synapse Award, which recognizes an outstanding, innovative, health research-related activity done by a Let's Talk Science Outreach volunteer or pair of volunteers. Sana & Justine's Non-smoking Awareness activity for the Guelph Public Library was selected as one of the top three finalists, and ultimately as first-runner up by the National selection committee.

Q. What are you studying and what have you studied in the past?

A.  I completed my undergraduate degree at McMaster University in Bio-Physiology. I am currently in the 2nd (and last) year of the Masters of Public Health program at University of Guelph.

Q. What has been your favourite part of volunteering (or what is the best activity that you've done so far)?

A. Throughout my volunteer work with Let's Talk Science, I have met a lot of enthusiastic and curious kids. I love watching kids light-up and be fascinated by the activities we conduct. And there is no greater joy than watching these children thoroughly enjoy the activities you have prepared and being told the kids are already look forward to your next visit! I have really enjoyed conducting the Chemistry Magic Show as most of the chemistry tricks completely surprise the kids and they are left with a passion to learn more about science.

Q. Why did you become a Let's Talk Science volunteer?

A. I absolutely love working with kids in any capacity and I am extremely passionate about Science. So when I heard about the opportunity to get involved with Let's Talk Science, I couldn't imagine a better fit for myself. I have been a volunteer with Let's Talk Science for more than a year now, and I have genuinely enjoyed every aspect of being a part of this group.  

Q. What are your goals for the future?

A. I have recently applied to Medical School and am interesting in the field of General Surgery.

Good luck Sana! We're rooting for you!!!

Let's Talk Science likes to party!

LTS at Guelph made a VERY special visit on the weekend to a VERY special boy for his VERY special 8th birthday party!

When he grows up, he wants to be a Chemist so our wonderful LTS at Guelph volunteers helped make him a Chemist-for-a-Day and do some fun and exciting Chemistry Magic Show activities with his friends!

Happy Birthday Peter from LTS at the University of Guelph!

Here comes Halloween! Let's Talk Science at the University of Guelph will be at the Elora Frightfest

We'll have Halloween themed demos and hands-on activities for kids, so come on out for some spooky science!

Science & Technology Week Activities!

Guelph LTS at the Arthur Fall Fair

Katie B & Sana K are my new heroes!
They drove through torrential rain last Saturday, all the way to Arthur to set up an LTS booth at the Arthur Fall Fair. 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Slime_in_hand.JPG

For 5 full hours they entertained the masses with Chemistry Magic Show demonstrations, competing fiercely against the nearby face-painting clowns for attention. 

By the end of the day, the SLIME won out. Their LTS booth was one of the highlights of the Fair! Over 100 kids and their parents came by to visit Sana and Katie and learn about the science behind the magic (& the wonders of the LTS program!)

What a way to kick off the start of the academic year! 

More Volunteer Appreciation! Summer Raffle Winners

As June wrapped up, Nancy and I gratefully looked towards what we thought would be a quiet and lazy summer here at LTS Guelph. Boy were we wrong!!

Our volunteers helped us run 15 activities in July. That represents 66 hours of volunteer time from 18 different volunteers (some volunteered more than once!) to reach over 220 kids in Guelph and 40 kids in far off Meaford!

In August, LTS reached an additional 190 youth by running 9 more activities, which would not have been possible without help from 15 different volunteers who contributed 46 hours of their time! Miyuki K was our superstar volunteer of the month, helping with 4 activities, including our Chemistry Magic Show partnership with Creative Encounters with Science and a Crime Lab activity at the Guelph Public Library. Kaitlin R and Maude P also get 4 stars for their partnership with CES and for developing a new workshop called Let's Talk Nutrition! Marlene P gets a huge thank you from me for volunteering to drive all the way up to Meaford to help me run Astronaut Academy at the Meaford Public Library!

This summer we implemented a new raffle for any volunteers who helped us run an activity.

* In July, Haley P won an OVC tote bag filled with stationary, a U of G reusable mug and an HP wireless mouse.

* In August, Li D won and OVC tote bag filled with stationary and a Cineplex 2-4-1 movie ticket.

Thanks everyone! And cheers to a new school year!

Ann

Please spread the word! LTS is running training sessions for new volunteers!

Are you a 3rd or 4th year undergrad, vet or graduate student, staff or faculty? Are you looking for a way to get involved in the community, get to know other grad students in other departments, and/or to share your passion for your field with youth? If you are, Let's Talk Science is looking for you!

Let's Talk Science (www.letstalkscience.ca) is a national not-for-profit organization that pairs university student volunteers with educators across Canada. We are looking for senior undergraduate, graduate and vet student volunteers who can spend 10 hours each year (only 5 hours/semester) volunteering with youth in Guelph and the surrounding area. Though our volunteers are predominantly science, engineering, or math graduate students, all disciplines are welcome! (This means YOU social science students!) 

There are many diverse opportunities for involvement, and our volunteers have many opportunities to develop their communication, presentation and teaching skills (always a bonus for adding to your CV!) in both local and rural/remote communities. Most volunteers engage students with hands-on science activities from our pre-made "kits", but you can also develop and design your own modules around your area of study or special interest, helping to add to our catalog of available activities.

Examples of recent activities include a visit to a Grade 2 class for a Plants & Pollinators game, a competition to build chain-reaction Rube Goldberg machines in a Grade 7 class, monthly library visits for kids' science programs like our Crime Scene Investigator mystery and Chemistry Magic Show, giving a talk at a Philosophy symposium or presenting your research in a Poster Presentation at Science Rendezvous.

 To learn more, come out to one of our 20 minute info sessions in the Science Complex Room 1511: 

Thursday, September 12th, 2013 at 5 pm

Thursday, September 19th, 2013 at 5 pm

 If you're already convinced,  and want to volunteer, you'll first have to attend an orientation and training session. Please RSVP to uguelph@letstalkscience.ca for one of the following training sessions in the Science Complex Room 1511:

Thursday, September 12th, 2013 from 5:30-7:30 pm

Thursday, September 19th, 2013 from 5:30-7:30 pm

Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 from 11:30 am - 1:30 pm
in the Science Complex Room 1511

If you have any questions or concerns, please email the University of Guelph Let's Talk Science coordinators, Nancy and Ann at uguelph@letstalkscience.ca. To learn more about who we are and what we do at the University of Guelph, please check out our website at www.letstalkscience.ca/uguelph.

Cheers!

Ann & Nancy

Our Site's Highlights

Our Fantastic Volunteers!

We've totaled the numbers and tallied the points, and concluded it was yet another fantastic year here at Let's Talk Science at the University of Guelph.

From July 1, 2012 - June 30, 2013, our volunteers conducted over 130 activities and reached over 4100 youth. This amounts to over 1300 hours of volunteer time from our 96 active volunteers!

We'd like to tip our hats to all of our active volunteers, especially our top five volunteers, who volunteered the most number of hours to help reach out to youth in our communities.

1. Linda Jewell - 46 hours

2. Roman Kondra - 39.5 hours including 4 rural activities

3. Marshall Lindner - 36.5 hours including an amazing 8 rural activities!

4. Nick Jeffery - 35 hours

5. Larry Chen - 34.5 hours including 2 rural activities (and Larry only started volunteering in Jan!)

Thanks so much for everyone's help! There is absolutely no way we could make such a difference without y'all!

Cheers to a fantastic year!
And cheers to an even better one coming up!

Volunteer Appreciation Night!!

Hello all LTS volunteers!

You're cordially invited to join us on 

Thursday, June 20th at 6 pm in the Grad Lounge.

LTS will be providing a few platters of appies as well as handing out your volunteer certificates and some prizes in categories such as attending the volunteer appreciation event, completing a rural activity, volunteering more than the minimum 10 hours, or getting an activity evaluation filled out. We will also raffle off a few larger prizes so make sure your portal activity logs are completely up to date as I'll be tallying the numbers.

Even if you were too busy to volunteer this semester, please join us as this is a recognition of LTS volunteer efforts for the entire year! 

If you have a close friend or significant other who'd like to tag along, the more the merrier! But of course, I can't promise them a volunteering certificate ;-) 

This would be a great opportunity to convince them we're a fun and worthwhile group to join :-P

Thursday is also trivia night at the Grad Lounge so you're welcome to stay, celebrate your volunteering triumphs with us, share some stories, slake your thirst or satisfy your hunger and be part of an LTS trivia team.

Please RSVP by email if you're planning to attend so we know how much food to order, which certificates to bring, and most importantly, how many prizes and raffle tickets to get.

Hope to see you all on Thursday!

Spring Sprouts in a Local Classroom!

2 of our wonderful volunteers (Katie H. and Francesca H.) recently visited a Grade 1 classroom at Sacred Heart Catholic School here in Guelph to run our PLANTS activity. Since the weather is so beautiful, the girls opted to add an extra hands-on project for the kids -- grow bean plants in cotton balls so they could study the root structure!

Many thanks to the teacher for passing along this picture last week!

WAY TO GROW! ahem... I mean WAY TO GO!

April Showers Brings Volunteer Awesomeness! :)

What an amazing semester we just finished. Thank you to all our volunteers for yet another amazing month of activities. Nancy and Amanda were sincerely grateful for help running the All Science Challenge, and for all the help given to make sure our regular classroom visits went off successfully!

A salute to those who ran awesome events in Owen Sound last month! Not only did you commit to four hours of transit time (WOW!), but you were flexible enough to run events with loads of kids on a BOAT! You did such an awesome job, LTS head office featured you on the main site, so check out:

http://www.letstalkscience.ca/news-and-events/news/1223-outreach-sites-team-up-for-science-fair-activities.html

Thanks again to Roman, Matt, Katie, Marshall, Larry, Erin and Heying!

Cheers!

Ann

Congratulations to the Let's Talk Science National Award Finalists!

The annual Let's Talk Science CIHR-Synapse Award recognizes an outstanding, innovative, health research-related activity done by a Let's Talk Science Outreach volunteer or pair of volunteers.

This year, we nominated Sana Khan and Justine Hutchinson for their efforts putting together an activity for Non-Smoking month at the Guelph Public Library. The Let's Talk Science head office agreed that they did an amazing job, and a jury of LTS employees and volunteers included Justine and Sana in the top three finalists for the award.

Congratulations girls

Read more about the 3 finalists and about Sana and Justine's activity here:
http://www.letstalkscience.ca/volunteers/showcase-and-awards/cihr-award-showcase.html

A post-College Royal thank you!

Phew! College Royal is OVER! Though I believe it is safe to say our exhibit was a smashing success! We could hardly pry the bottled-tornado out of the grasps of some kids and the floating orb demonstration caused quite a few "wows". People loved making fruit-batteries and becoming part of the circuit! And who doesn't love a little alien snot?! 

To our twelve fantastic College Royal volunteers (Miyuki, Sarah, Naheda, Cassandra, Kate, Chrissy, Jason, Nicole, Jacqueline, Ashleigh, Lois, and of course Linda), many thanks for helping us run such an awesome weekend! We truly couldn't have done it without you! I hope you all had at least half as much fun as some of those kids!

March was chalk full of activities, and we'd like to thank everyone who helped out with a school or community group visit. What a crazy March Break! There's still a month left in the semester and a number of big events coming up, but we've already reached nearly a THOUSAND kids + 500 adults since January 1/13. Wooohooo!

As Nancy, Amanda & I catch our collective breaths, April is rushing towards us and we have many requests from eager educators.  There are both local and rural requests coming up (including an event on the Chi Cheemaun ferry!) plus the All Science Challenge, and as always, we need your help to fill them. I know April can be a busy time for marking, but a few hours here or there will help us tremendously! Pretty pretty please! Check our Upcoming Activities tab at the top for volunteer opportunities.

xoxo

Ann

College Royal Open House

Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 17 will be the 89th annual College Royal open house weekend at the University of Guelph.

Not to be left out of the festivities, Let's Talk Science will be running some awesome activities in Room 1504 of the Science Complex from 9-5 on Saturday and 9-4 on Sunday.

To visitors:
There will be activities for young and old, so bring the entire crew! We'll have mysterious floating orbs, fruit electrical circuits and super-slime making stations = fantastic fun with a tiny slice of science. (But trust us, your kids will hardly even realize they're learning something! And you might learn something too!)

To volunteers:
The more volunteers the merrier, so let us know if you can stop by for a couple hours!

A Record Outreach Semester!

A huge thank you to the 62 volunteers, who spent 425 hours helping us offer over 50 activities last semester. Because of you, Let's Talk Science @ Guelph reached over 1147 youth between September 1st and December 31st, 2012. We've certainly come a long way from the 430 youth visited in the Fall of 2010, and we even beat our previous record of 1000 youth visited in Fall 2011! So this has been our best fall semester ever!

Way to go!!!

But of course, we want this semester to be even BETTER! So I'm challenging all of our 130 volunteers to get involved in at least one activity this semester!! I double-dog-dare you!

Click on the tab at the top for the list of "Upcoming Volunteer Activities" to see how you can help. And remember, if you're in a partnership with an educator, you're expected to visit their class at least twice a year (ideally once each semester), so if you haven't already, shoot them an email soon to start planning your next visit.

Cheers!

Ann
________________________________________

Guelph Coordinator Announcement!

Hi Let's Talk Science volunteers,

Happy New Year! I hope that you had time to relax with friends and family during the break!

I am very sad to say that my (Linda's) time as coordinator has come to an end. I will still be around as a volunteer, but I will no longer be a coordinator. I would like to take a moment to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you! I am really going to miss working with all of you, but I'm looking forward to having the time to volunteer alongside you more often!

Please continue reading below for an introduction from Ann and Nancy (the new coordinators who will be joining Amanda!), announcements about the winter semester training dates (in case you have friends or labmates who would like to volunteer!), and some upcoming activities in the weeks to come.

Best wishes,
Linda